I decided to make this mod after realizing that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion suffered from significant gameplay and "realism" problems that, in my view, detracted from the potential enjoyment of such a beautiful and massive RPG. Creating, balancing, and testing the needed changes was a time-consuming task, but the result is a more rewarding experience that I hope also helps those of you that found the game wanting upon release.

The following list describes the problems and how I addressed them:

The first major issue is that of linearity of challenge. In Oblivion, quests and combat encounters are "leveled" relative to the level of the player's character. This concept, while offering some good gameplay elements (freedom of choice, gentle learning curve, etc.) was implemented too indiscriminately. The sense of accomplishment in improving one's avatar suffers because the world is constantly changing to meet a pre-designed level of challenge. Also, "realism" and "immersion" disappear when the player notices glitches in the continuity of the world (Town guards so high in level that one wonders why they need a "hero" after all; lowly creatures that can suddenly give High-Chancellor Ocato a senseless beating, etc.)

The goal of this mod is to increase the overall challenge of the game, to increase the chances of the unexpected to happen, to reduce the flaws that hurt the "realism-factor" of the "leveled" system, to tweak item rarity and presence in the world, to add some new content and, lastly, to change some of the variables of the game system to balance its gameplay.

To preserve the positive aspects of the "leveled" system and remedy the negative ones, this mod changes the following:

I went through every NPC and creature in order to cap their max level. In general, the caps fall mostly between 4 and 40, with some special cases. Every modification allowed a range where the creature or NPC can level relative to the level of the player; those that were capped or static by default I left untouched. The criteria to choose the level of caps took into account the relative power of the creature, the frequency, the status (named, boss, occupation), the relevance for the main quest and guild quests, the lore of tamriel, etc. Also, most of these changes also included a minimum level. This will enhance the sense of danger when traveling into unknown areas, it will also add to the realism of the game's world and, finally, provide a sense of accomplishment when what once was a threat becomes a hunt for sport. A complete list would be too large for a readme file, here are some of the most significant and common changes:

1- Daedra remain unchanged except for capped levels. Also, their spawn lists were changed to give a more random chance of encountering weaker daedra at higher levels. For example, Fire atronarchs, clannfears and scamps can appear in oblivion areas, gates, special dungeons, etc, regardless of the level of the player. The higher level daedra have a slightly higher chance of spawning, to keep the player on guard.

2- Dremoras are now significantly more powerful. Markynaz and Valkynaz have their levels capped but with a range where they keep up with the player. Every leveled list that included dremoras is now updated, even quest ones. This means that some quests, specially the main quest, will be more difficult and the player will not be able to complete them at low levels. Roughly, a level 20-25 will stand a chance, anything below that and it will be a world of hurt. At a player level of 40+ almost all dremoras will be lower than the player, with the exception of some special cases. At lvl 50 the player should be able to mop the floor with just about every creature in Cyrodiil. (Example: Kynval are lvl 12, in most cases they will not spawn unless the player is level 13--the intervals of Dremora reach near lvl 40)

3- Vampires are very different now. There are four different types of vampires: regular, fearsome, deadly and ancient. They all have an interval where they will appear in the usual vampire havens and dungeons. The space between the intervals allows the player to experience both challenge and a good ol-fashioned vampire-killing spree. For example, at lvl 16 there is a good chance that you can clean up a vampire nest with ease (except if patriarchs or matriarchs are around) Anything below level 8 will have a very tough time against the regular vampires. Deadly and ancient vampires carry specially good loot, but they will not show up until level 25 or so. Again, some surprises are in store for the daring adventurer. The most powerful vampires are the ancient patriarchs and matriarchs. These will appear in the late stages of the game provided that you have not cleaned every other regular patriarch or matriarch in Cyrodiil, something hard to do unless you reach mid twenties. Some dungeons will become "re-occupied" if you clean them early on. Rumor has it that a very powerful vampire lord has brought to Cyrodiil a feared relic in order to cleanse it of its power with the aid of other elder buddies of his kin.

4- Goblins of different tribes vary now in power. Some are rather scrawny, others are now very strong in comparison. All of their levels and loot tables are capped and adjusted accordingly, plus a new item here and there if you can find them. Regular, run-of-the-mill gobbies are also capped and tweaked, the warlords will give you a good beating unless you are a seasoned adventurer.

5- Mythic creature leveled lists are modified so that there is a chance that lower level critters will spawn even at high levels. This is specially prevalent in wilderness areas, where now there is also the chance that powerful creatures may surprise the wandering player. That is, there is now the slight possibility that you will run into very tough fights while exploring the wild. The more remote and inaccessible the area, the higher the likelihood of an untimely encounter. The strongest of mythic creatures, the Minotaurs, are capped but can put up a fight even against the experienced player.

6- Undead are mostly untouched, except for level caps on their strongest versions: wraiths/Lichs. Some skeletons are a bit stronger but they remain among the weakest of the undead, alongside zombies. Leveled lists for undead are modified so that there is now the chance that they will spawn weak undead regardless of the level of the player. Again, higher level undead have a greater chance of appearing in these situations.

8- Bandits, Marauders, Conjurers and Necromancers are capped, their loot lists adjusted and spread at variety of level ranges so that some difference between them is apparent. Bandits can be very low level and reach early twenties. Some exceptions are the bandit bosses and the infamous Black Bow Bandit crew. Marauders tend to be slightly more powerful. Necromancers and Conjurers will give some trouble to the inexperienced adventurer, but later on they will easily become cannon-fodder. However, the boss versions are rather powerful. The expulsion of necromancers from the Mages Guild has bred resentment. Necromancers of Tamriel, under the guide of the experienced Fayth Noor, gather in Cyrodiil to plot against the Archmage.

9- All Guards in game are now level-capped. They are not lowly beginners, but you will not get the feeling that they are so powerful that your presence in Cyrodiil is a nuisance. At high levels you will be able to school most guards. Some towns have stronger regiments, others are weaker. Guards in the stages of the main quest are leveled appropriately, stocked with some healing potions and ready to rumble. Still, powerful enemies will take them down more easily than they can do the same to you. This also applies to the blades and the imperial guards.

10- All Citizens of Cyrodiil, friendly or not, are level capped, when possible, in-synch with the difficulty of the quests with which they are associated. I have tried to give them a generous level range so as not to stiffle or demean the quest progression. With that said, a lot of npcs involved in quests have minimum level caps which means that you may not be able to finish the hard guild quests early on. A great feature of this change is that you will no longer get your ass handed down to you by a hoe wielding punk of a farmer after you pilfer his house clean or take his daughter to the "barn."

11- The Arena fights are completely changed. They do not simply scale according to your level. Now, each batch of fighters has its own level range, increasing up until a much more epic fight with the Grandchampion. You will not be able to beat the Arena unless you are highly experienced and decked out. This is a significant change from the original, where the Grandchampion of Cyrodiil, capital of Tamriel, was a fearsome level 10 warrior! Morituri te salutan!

12- Finally, every Loot Table and NPC-Gear Table has been adjusted to match their occupation and status. You will not find hardly any npcs with Elven, Ebony or above, except in some cases to flesh out the mysteries of Tamriel. The same applies to monsters, except powerful ones, and Bandits, Highwaymen and Marauders. Also, even at higher levels they will not constantly sport chainmail, mithril, dwarven and orcish. They will still appear in leather, iron, fur and steel on a regular basis.

Those changes addressed some of the problems that I found with the "leveled" system. I believe that the game's atmosphere and gameplay improve greatly with them. I added a few more changes for the sake of rounding the mod, also with the aim of improving realism, tweaking lackluster skills, birthsigns and a few other issues. The changes are:

1- Every pertinent loot table for armor, weapons, gems, jewelry and special items has been revamped, except most of the quest-related ones. The aim here was to make items more scarce and rare until higher levels. For example, Dwarven will not appear at lvl 6, but lvl 13+; Daedric will not begin to drop until around very early thirties. The same formula, scaled appropriately, I applied to the remaining lists. Powerful items will be more special and not simply lying around at every corner after level 20. (As an aside, the editor for Oblivion has a few bugs, one of which affects how items and levels in lists are organized, I went through the lists as many times as I could before going completely bananas--you try going through hundreds of items across hundreds of cross-referenced lists--but inconsistencies may remain here, some by design, others by bug and yet others because I didn't feel like tweaking them any longer.)

2- The value of gems, jewelry, silver house-wares and pelts is now higher so that thieves have a greater enticement in risking their neck than the measly gold coin that they can squeeze out of a silver fork.

3- A few new items now appear near or in powerful NPCs. These are not mighty or common enough to imbalance the game, but they add some flavor to the also new NPCs.

4- Birthsigns have changed. I have kept the original spirit of each constellation but I have modified their effects, and added new ones, to balance them out. Unless you are interested in roleplaying a cursed character, very few people would choose the sign of the Lord (90 hit point heal spell, 25% weakness to fire) over the Mage (50 points of Magicka, as much as a 25 bonus to INT would give, without penalties)

5- The skills of Hand to Hand and Sneak have some modifications. Hand to Hand was sorely lacking at release. Its range is very short, its damage can't hold a candle to powerful weapons, its rate of block was half of wielded weapons and the player cannot use gauntlets to add offensive on-hit spell effects as with every other weapon. Now, hand to hand damage max is higher, its rate of block also went up (although still lower than that for weapons), it has a longer reach and its staggering chance while blocking was adjusted upwards. Sneak Attacks now do slightly higher damage at Journeyman and Expert ranks, x7 and x8 respectively. Marksman Sneak attacks in the same ranks are x3.5 (displays just as the normal x3) and x4 respectively. Also, disarming chances of Special Attacks and Blocks are now higher than a poor 5%, which meant that only 1 out of 20 blows would actually disarm an opponent. The chances to Knockdown and Paralyze with Marksman Special Attacks also went up slightly.

6- Descriptions for the notices of Mastery achievement in-game are re-written now to reflect a higher sense of pride and accomplishment, rather than the same old text used in the prior perks' notices. Descriptions of Birthsigns differ so as to include the changes and additions. Finally, changes to the perks of Sneak also appear in the notices brought up when a player reaches a new rank.

7- The speed of arrows and magic attacks increases by 20% and 10% respectively. This is done to offset the ease with which one could avoid the ranged attacks of NPCs and monsters by timing sidesteps.

8- The minimum levels necessary to receive Daedra Lord quests at their shrines is now higher for most of them--anywhere from lvl 15 to lvl 20. This change obeys two reasons. First, it did not make a lot of sense to me that a Daedric Lord would grant a lowly lvl 2 the honor of serving under them with the promise of an item of power. Now, in order to be a worthy champion, you are going to need to know how to skin some beast other than sheep. The second one is related to acquiring a decent level before tackling more dangerous stages of the main quest--a build-up towards a more epic finale.

9- Fighter's and Mage's Guilds in the main towns of Cyrodiil now have special Storage Chests to stash the player's growing inventory.

The following information is a list and commentary on the changes that take place in V. 1.2. A lot of things have changed and I highly recommend that you take some time to read through the next few paragraphs.

NPC Gear/Loot Tables:

A major change in V. 1.2 is that many NPCs and creatures now carry items appropriate to their level range. It is not the case with these Actors that their items are completely dependent on the level of the Player Character. This change was necessary for two reasons. The first and most important is that this change guarantees the rewarding sense of accomplishment that the player experiences when defeating great odds. Previously, in the original version of Oblivion as well as in many instances of the first release of OOO, the player would not get this kind of satisfaction often, because even if they managed to defeat a powerful foe, its loot tables were adjusted according to the level of the player, thus rewarding less than what the challenge was worth. Now many NPCs carry items suitable to the challenge which they pose. I have not made every single enemy carry those things that begin to appear at their level, however, because that is also rather predictable. The goal was to keep the sense of expectation and uncertainty pretty high, so that surprises can keep you entertained and intrigued. Also, keep your eyes peeled for stashes of long forgotten goodies while you explore wilderness, dungeons, caverns and any other remote location.

New Player Armors and Items:

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul includes fantastic new types of armor that can be found both in NPCs and in merchant's stores. The current new additions are complete sets of Worn Steel, Worn Dwarven and Worn Orcish armor. These were made by Thomas Höchsmann, who around the ES Forums goes by the nickname of Dieterweb. Here's the link to the thread that he opened upon releasing this fine work: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=357513 Thank you very much, Thomas! The only modifications that I did to his armors are found in the names (from German to English) and in their stats (they are slightly worse than their brand new counterparts). In the future I hope to keep adding more of his creations and whatever else looks appropriate for the style and atmosphere of Oblivion. There are also, as in the previous version of the Overhaul, several new items in possession of rather powerful new figures in the province of Cyrodiil. These are neither obscenely enhanced items, nor are they weak, but just right for the level of difficulty involved in getting them. Good luck with that!

New Combat Behavior AI:

Thanks to the great work of Lyrondor, now Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul has modified combat behavior accross many types of creatures and NPCs. Lyrondor created the very popular Combat Behavior mod for Oblivion. This fine mod is already in its version 2.1 and it is this latest version that is now fully incorporated into OOO. I preserved all the changes that V 2.1 of CB accomplishes, plus I used its functionality to boost the new enemy types that appear in this version of the Overhaul. Thank you very much, Lyrondor! Here is the link to the original thread of Lyrondor's released work: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=303754&hl= I have included in the zip those readme files that came with Lyrondor's mod, so that if you want very specific information about what this mod does, you can get it straight from the source of its goodness. Preliminarily, I can say that this inclusion will make the challenge and variety of OOO that much richer and engrossing.

New Enemy Types:

I have created four more classes of enemies for this release of the Overhaul, plus a host of other creatures that, while they do not count as a "class", increase the variety of what you will encounter while adventuring in Cyrodiil. The four new classes of enemies are:

Raiders: Raiders are heavily armored and prefer to fight with blades, although they will resort to other means whenever they do not have a trusted edge at hand. They are more powerful than Marauders and will crush the inexperienced player. However, they are also better equiped than most lowly Bandits and Marauders, so if you can take them down then you can expect some decent rewards for your efforts! Raiders count among them not just those experienced in melee combat, but also ranged fighters and magic users. Their elite ranks will make short work of you without hesitation--better be prepared for a fight if you venture within a raider stronghold. Their leader is a mighty Nord known as The Artic Bear.

Amazons: Amazons are female warriors specialized in nimble and agile combat. They prefer blunt weapons but they are also skilled in archery and swordsmanship. A few among them are fierce priestess, with the power to heal their clan members and bring destruction upon their foes. Amazons do not like to fight encumbered, and rarely if ever wear clothes other than the most simple garments. However, they have a long tradition of adorning their bodies with jewelry, which makes of them an attractive target to those inclined to thievery. Amazons do not share space with men,,, unless they are dead! They will not give those females outside of their clan any quarter either. The priestess of the Amazon clan of Cyrodiil is secretive and not many know what she looks like, or even what her name is.

Guardians of Oblivion: Guardians of Oblivion are Conjurers of great skill and power. They specialize in Summoning magic, though they have learned a few tricks beyond what the usual Summoners of Cyrodiil can muster. These enemies are dangerous magic users, even if unarmored and weak to physical attacks, they can conjure very powerful Daedra to aid them in battle, using them as shields while they hurl magic from safe distance. These Conjurers are much more powerful than their lesser brethren. It is rumored that a woman of great skill and presence commands these outcasts from the community of the Mage's Guild.

The Putrid Hand: Necromancers of the Putrid Hand are very skilled in the dark arts of magic. Resenting their imposed exile from the Mage's Guild, they have formed their own enclave where to expand their knowledge and power. Since they are officially considered enemies of the ruling Mage class in the Imperial City, they do not take kindly to those that intrude on their new-found lairs. Renowned for his skill in commanding the occult forces of life and death, Master Lien Valeth quickly became the leader of this rising sect of fearsome necromancers. Their now secretive existence has forced them to become acquainted with those schools of magic that would aid them in remaining unseen and unheard.

Also, now you can find Minotaur Titans, Giant Wolves, Kodiak Bears and perhaps a few other surprising unique creatures roaming the lands of Cyrodiil.

Changes to Frequency and Difficulty of NPCs and Creatures:

I have done some significant changes in this area of the Overhaul. Now, when adventuring both in the wilderness and indoors, you are bound to find more creatures/NPCs than before. Instead of only finding a single Actor per SpawnPoint in the world, now you may see several. The maximum number of creatures differs among types. Weaker creatures will appear in higher numbers than strong ones. Rarely you will see more than four creatures in a single spot, if ever. Usually between one and three is much more likely. I did not want more Actors than that for two reasons: 1-Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul already increases the difficulty of many NPCs, offers a much wider range of enemies and makes armor and weapon upgrades more difficult to find than what was found in the original release of Oblivion. The last thing that the fledgling adventurer needs is a mob of angry enemies in hot pursuit every time that they enter a dungeon or explore the wilderness. 2- Oblivion is a demanding game in terms of computer-processing power. I did not want to hamper the enjoyment of the game for those that do not have the latest and most shiny hardware. I have tried to keep the maximum number of Actos on-screen within what could be found in the original version of the game. With that said, if you decide to enter a dungeon and run from one end to the other, then it is likely that you will have a throng of pissed off baddies chasing their next meal and, odds are, they will get it.

The increased difficulty resulting from higher number of creatures and NPCs with which to fight or play sneaky tactics is offset by the now increased chance of gaining better quality items early on. If you are creative, and a bit lucky, you can prepare yourself much better for bigger challenges than what you could reasonably tackle previously. The Overhaul still retains the scale of item rarity found in chests and in some enemies, but the new armors and the chances of finding better items when fighting powerful enemies will, I think, give you the opportunity to continue progressing without becoming stagnant for several levels at a time.

More changes in spawn frequency are:

-Minotaurs will not appear nearly as often in roads, they are now more common in the wild.

-Traveling outdoors is now potentially more dangerous. Whereas some creatures are more docile, the chances of finding a stray, powerful and aggressive monster while adventuring in the wilderness are now higher than before. The further from civilization that you go increases proportionally the chances of finding deadly creatures.

Changes in difficulty relate specifically to the new creatures and NPC types added in this version of OOO. I have changed some of the Actors from what they were in the previous version. Now skeletons will not be as difficult as before, their health pools were still a bit too powerful. Now, you may not notice much difference, but a lot of NPCs are more resilient than before. Vampire's levels of health have increased, as well as those of Dremoras and the rest of aggressive NPCs. Each change was done with careful consideration and I do not expect that you will have a difficult time in defeating enemies. I did not make these changes so that it would take long to harm an enemy, but simply so that they would not fall after a couple of well placed attacks. Also, now with Lyrondor's great work in combat behavior, the variety and cunningness of enemies has increased dramatically.

Changes to Frequency, Stats and Value of Items

Most leveled lists for loot items remain the same as previously (NPC lists, as I mentioned above, are heavily changed, however). In future versions I will tweak with more detail what kinds of items appear in certain dungeons, according to the difficulty of each place, and not mainly based on the level of the player.

I have reduced the rate of magical trinkets that appear in the world. Now it is easier to find them on difficult foes than it is to discover them in random lootable points (chests, actors, etc). The reduction is not very large, but it will balance a bit more the increase of higher end goodies that you can find in Actors.

Now the value of clothing is much higher and appropriate to the quality of the item. Finally it is worth your time to take some fine pieces of clothing back to the merchants in town. This change also makes up for the slightly reduced rate of magical gear found in around the world of Cyrodiil.

Arrows are now more powerful. This change was necessary to balance the difficulty and cost in using Archery as a viable combat skill in comparison with the effectivity of other methods.

Flawed gems have had their value slightly reduced. The rest of gem types remain the same as in the previous version (that is, higher than in the original game)

Gold rewards for completing stages of the Arena are now more lucrative. This change corresponds to the higher difficulty of its stages.

I removed the ability of making Restore Magicka spells to those players that gained this possibility by having chosen The Mage as their Birthsign.

Minotaur Titans now drop a powerful form of Minotaur Horns that can be used as an ingredient in Alchemy.

Giant Wolves and Kodiaks yield more pelts than their lesser kin.

Merchants now sell the new types of armor and provide better equipment a little sooner than before.

The elf swordswoman in the first dual fight of the Arena no longer drops a lootable sword.

As usual, a host of small tweaks here and there to loot lists, mainly to fix errors that I introduced, or that the CS editor created.

Changes to Skills, Birthsigns, Globals and Settings.

The first and most important change in this area is that version 1.2 of OOO does away with earlier modification to the Global TimeScale. I have reverted the value back to normal. Changing the length of in-game time may create unexpected problems, as well as distort certain graphical features of the game. I decided that it was best to leave the option to the player, instead of forcing it upon them. There are very fine mods out there that can control the length of in-game time, for those who would still like to play around with this feature.

The skill of Hand to Hand was slightly over-powered in the previous version of the Overhaul. Now I have reduced its maximum damage and its reach. It still retains the full changes to blocking and staggering chances. Hand to Hand is still much more viable than in the original version of Oblivion, but compared to the earlier release of this mod, its enhancements are more conservative.

I have reduced the rate of Fatigue Regeneration for both the signs of The Warrior and The Steed. I found, as many others did, that it offered a great advantage at early levels, and still managed to be very powerful in later stages of the game. Now I think that it retains its function without unbalancing the equilibrium among birthsigns.

The respawn time for Actors in the world is now two weeks instead of the three days in the original Oblivion.

The speed of arrows and magic is now a little higher than before. Arrows in particular needed a boost, not just for "realism" but also for gameplay reasons. The new combat behavior modifications make enemies dodge and take cover much more than before, and the slow speed of the arrows of the earlier version would not have been useful in ranged combat. I did not make arrows or projectiles so that they would be like bullets either. If you prefer a higher speed, I suggest that you look for mods that specifically address this isse. There are plenty of them and should be very compatible with OOO if you make sure that Oblivions loads them after it loads OOO when you launch the game (Whatever loads last overwrites earlier specifications) Look at the end of this readme for indications and links to utilities and mods that can make your experience of Oblivion and Oscuro's Overhaul that much more suited to your liking and enjoyment.

Although it is your choice, I still would recommend that you give a good try to the full blown version of the OOO, as many of its changes improve the Oblivion experience beyond what the "lite" version accomplishes.

Notes on Compatibility:

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul changes many parameters under which the original Oblivion works. For this reason it is possible that many other mods will conflict with its function if you try to use them in conjuction. It is impossible for me to make sure that every single mod is compatible with the Overhaul. The vision that drives this mod requires all the changes that I have designed and implemented. Therefore, I would like to say up-front that if you have problems with compatibility between mods then I suggest that you run a conflict detector program to see exactly which mods are clashing. I noted the link to TimeSlip's excellent program to this end.

Second, I cannot modify the Overhaul to make it compatible with other mods, unless the amount of work to do so is minimal. With so many variables at play, any significant change to the structure of this mod would alter its intended goals drastically, and in some circumstances it might just be impossible. Any mod that heavily reworks creature leveled tables and/or item tables will conflict with OOO. The extent of the problem varies in each case.

I would highly recommend that you download the Natural Wildlife mod, by Tag, here: http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2063
Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is compatible with Natural Wildlife and I encourage you to use them both simultaneously. Perhaps in the future I will get Tag's permission to incorporate it into OOO. In either case, the next version of the Overhaul will include more realistic animal behavior.

In order to reduce possible compatibility problems, and to offer a wider range of options for you to customize your experience of Oblivion with the Overhaul, I have included in this zip two files. The "lite" version of OOO does away with changes to Birthsigns, arrow/magic speeds and some other tweaks to skills. If you rather not use those features, then use the lite version.

Notes on Files on Zip and Installation:

There are two main .esp files. The full blown Overhaul and the "lite" version. You only need to use one of them. Do not enable both at the same time in the Oblivion launch utility.

Unzip Oscuro_Oblivion_Overhaul_V_1.2.zip and extract the file FULL_Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul_V_1.2.esp into the "Data" folder that can be found inside the main Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Folder.

(Example: C:/Program Files/Bethesda/Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion/Data/)

Now do the same with the rest of the files in the zip. Extract them to your Oblivion's "Data" folder. It is very important that you enable the "use folder names" option when you unzip these. By doing so, your program will unzip them into the Data folder but will create two new folders within it: "Textures" and "Meshes" These folders also have a specific directory structure inside of them, so it is best if you can let your unzipping program of choice do the work for you.

Once FULL_Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul_V1_2.esp is copied inside the "Data" folder, and the rest of the files are in their appropriate folders within "Data", enable Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul through Oblivion's Game Launcher utility under the "Data Files" tab.

Because of increased difficulty, it is wise to use a permanent save slot before you embark upon further stages of the main quest, lest you find yourself unable to return from of the plane of Oblivion.

The amount and nature of these changes mean that not all of them are compatible with existing savegames. In fact, if a new game is not started after installing the mod then crucial changes pertaining the level data of NPCs will not take effect. It is highly recommended that you begin a new game if you wish to run Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul V. 1.2. However, I plan this version to be the last in which I modify the level data of existing NPCs, therefore it is safe to assume that you will not need to restart with a new character in subsequent updates of this mod.

Feel free to modify this mod as you see fit for your personal use, although if you want to release it to the public then make sure, please, to contact me about the nature of the changes to the mod. Also, if modified for a public release, state in the accompanying information that you used Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul as a base, in order to preserve compatibility among mods.

Alright, you are ready to enjoy your now enhanced Oblivion experience! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Oscuro
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oscuro9@msn.com

Special Thanks:

Thanks to my crew around my usual prowling grounds for putting up with me after days of lacking sleep and sociability.

I would also like to thank the folks over TES Forums who have given me so much support, criticisms, help and all around good ol' fashioned internet-community comradery!
This mod would not be what it is without all of your attention and encouragement. Thanks!!!

Lyrondor and Thomas for their great work. Thank you so much for letting me use it in Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. I am proud of our collaboration.

Also thanks to Dev_Akm, ZuesToo, 5sharp, Switchblade, Jorlen, Toga, Julianross, Pepex82, Eikona, Luminair, Kallen, Brogarn and if I keep adding names then I will not get to release this

There is a (Beta for now) mod that has a boat that you can drive (its a copy of the Marie Elena) but when it is finished how about you make some pirates that raid the shore, or use them with raiders?
Try and use the boat with it, make it a quest or something for anvil: eg, Defend Anvil from pirates, then chase them and kill of the source of it, eg an island.

I've been enjoying the previous release of this mod very much but I felt that the day/night length and birthsigns changes were unnecessary. For me the ideal version of this mod would only make only those changes that are absolutely necessary in order to enhance the experience of playing Oblivion. Could you release an updated "lite" version too?

This mod is amazing! I'm using the 1.1 version right now, and I'm guessing I'd have to start the game for a third time if I used this newer version, so I think I'll keep it at 1.1 unless there is a way I don't have to. I'm about level 18 at the mo and it still seems like NPCs level up with me. I'm not seeing trolls in caves anymore - just Dremora Spiders. Surely they shouldn't be replaced. Maybe it was just that one cave...

Is it just me, or are the mythic enemies nerfed? I have to fight for my life to emerge victorious over undead, marauders, daedra, etc, but I can breeze through a mythic enemy den. I can cut down a Minotaur Lord in a good five normal swipes with my sword without breaking a sweat; less if I pegged him with a sneak attack beforehand. I can pop a Troll with a single sneak attack shot from my Flame Dart bow. Dreughs take three hits or less. All this at the same difficulty level where I get 0wn3d by a dremora gangbang.

First. You do not need to start a new game with 1.2 if you have used 1.01. It is advisable, but not imperative. It is up to you. I can't do a darn thing about it. It is how Oblivion works. NPC level data is stored in savegames. My changes in release 1.2 do not take hold with savegames. Now, if you have never used OOO before, then I really highly recommend you begin a new game, otherwise no changes to NPC level data will carry to your "vanilla" savegame

Mythic enemies are not nerfed in any way. They are as they were in Vanilla Oblivion. I have added more types, I have changed their spawn tables, but I have not made them more difficult. Same goes for Daedra. Dremoras are different, but not Daedra, yet.

Well against my better judgement I started over with this mod, and so far it seems like the whole game is much better balanced. I can't just fly through the arena at level 1 like I did the first time through (without the mod) and I look forward to having a character that will eventually be able to mop the floor with creatures instead of being pwned by bears at level 19.

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